A regular part of our mission is to send our hardworking volunteers to the rural, isolated villages in our listening area, especially when events rally those communities together around a particular cause.

Last month, volunteers Eva DeLappe and Lucus Keppel visited one of the communities closest to KNOM: Teller, a village on the coast of the Seward Peninsula (pictured at top). Both went to gather material for their respective jobs at KNOM. Lucus recorded voices and other material to be used in spot production. Eva (as pictured) reported on a news event, a pancake dinner benefit that featured a local author, Claire Kennon, whose novels address a problem that is tragically rampant in rural Alaska: domestic violence. Here’s Eva in her own words:

It was amazing and inspiring to meet such a courageous woman. In her powerful presentation, Claire shed light on the mindset of a domestic violence survivor; the message was that we cannot judge women who stay in harmful situations, but we can help them.

I also did my first interview for Elder Voices (KNOM’s program featuring the stories of respected Alaska Native elders). I spoke with James Okpealuk (ahk-bee-YAH-look), an 80-year-old Siberian Yup’ik man born and raised in the village of Diomede (DYE-yuh-meed). He told me stories about seal hunting, his father’s love of Eskimo dancing, and his own passion for ivory carving. He was kind and generous, and I felt honored to listen to his stories firsthand.

The drive was fun! It was a two-hour drive on a long, quiet dirt road. And we could tell winter is definitely here. We passed half-frozen streams, saw snow-white mountains, and drove through snow flurries.

Thank you for making trips like this possible! (Additional photos, below: artwork in the Teller school celebrating Native culture and decrying domestic violence.)

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This article is part of the November 2012 edition of our newsletter, The Nome Static.

]]>http://www.knom.org/wp/blog/2012/11/13/conversations-in-rural-alaska/feed/0Elder Voices: James Okpealukhttp://www.knom.org/wp/blog/2012/11/01/elder-voices-james-okpealuk/
http://www.knom.org/wp/blog/2012/11/01/elder-voices-james-okpealuk/#commentsThu, 01 Nov 2012 23:59:30 +0000http://www.knom.org/news/wp/?p=1472James Okpealuk is a skilled carpenter. Throughout his life, the Teller Elder has helped build many houses in Alaska, including homes in Fairbanks, new houses in Nome, and the old school in Teller. But he remembers his traditional home in Little Diomede with a smile: “All sod and rocks…more like a shack. Small, but very comfortable.”

On October’s episode of Elder Voices, James remembers his full and varied life. He shares his knowledge about carving ivory and subsistence hunting, and fondly recalls memories of his youth on little Diomede– helping his mother bake bread, watching his brother carve ivory, and hunting seals and walrus with his father. He recalls the joy of the holiday season, celebrating Christmas with a week of Eskimo games and a night of Eskimo dancing.

Hear James share his memories, stories and wisdom on the newest episode of Elder Voices: